An all-optical photonic microwave frequency divider (PMFD) is presented. It is based on injecting an RF phase modulated optical signal into a semiconductor laser oscillating in the period-two state. New optical frequency components with frequency separation of half of the input RF signal frequency are generated at the laser output. A frequency divided signal can be obtained by the beating of these optical frequency components at a photodetector. Large harmonic suppression can be achieved by using an optical filter to select only two optical frequency components to be detected by the photodetector. The proposed PMFD is free of electrical components and does not suffer from the modulator bias drift problem. It has the potential to operate over a 100 GHz frequency range. System parameters required to realise divide-by-two frequency division operation for different input RF signal frequencies are investigated. Experimental results are presented for the novel PMFD, which demonstrate the generation of a 1/2 frequency component for different input RF signal frequencies by controlling the forward bias current of an off-the-shelf semiconductor laser, and which also show the important advantages of large harmonic suppression and high signal-to-noise ratio performance. Wide input RF signal power range and high output stability performance are also demonstrated experimentally.
Two microwave photonic signal processing structures, which are capable to realise microwave frequency division with a tunable integer or non-integer division ratio, are presented. They are based on applying an input RF signal to a Mach Zehnder modulator, which is biased to generate a carrier-suppressed double sideband (DSB) or single sideband (SSB) optical signal. The carrier-suppressed DSB optical signal consists of the upper and lower 1 st order sidebands with a separation of two times the input RF signal frequency. The carrier of the SSB optical signal is suppressed by a fibre Bragg grating (FBG) connected to the modulator output. Hence the FBG output consists of the upper 1 st order and lower 2 nd order sidebands with a separation of three times the input RF signal frequency. The carrier-suppressed DSB or SSB optical signal is injected into a semiconductor laser. The semiconductor laser is oscillated in the period-one state that generates a number of equally spaced frequency components, which are frequency locked by the injection light wave. Beating of these optical frequency components at the photodetector produces an RF signal with a frequency of 2/N or 3/N times the input RF signal frequency where N can be between 3 and 6. Hence the 2/N frequency divider can realise 2/3, 1/2, 2/5 and 1/3 frequency division operation, and the 3/N frequency divider can realise 3/4, 3/5 and 1/2 frequency division operation. The proposed 2/N and 3/N frequency dividers have a very simple structure compared to the reported photonics-based microwave frequency divider that can realise both integer and non-integer frequency divisions. The frequency division ratio can be tuned by simply adjusting the forward bias current of the semiconductor laser subject to optical injection. Experimental results demonstrate the two proposed structures can realise microwave frequency division with a tunable integer and non-integer division ratio for different input RF signal frequencies of 10 to 18 GHz, and over 60 dB output signal-to-noise ratio performance. More than 27 dB suppression in the unwanted frequency components around the frequency divided signal is also demonstrated.
This paper presents a detailed experimental investigation of the nonlinear dynamics of a dualbeam optically injected semiconductor laser. Unlike previous works, we focus on the situation where the power and the frequency of the injection light wave are fixed and the free running frequency of the laser subject to optical injection is in between the two injection beams that have a large frequency separation. The nonlinear dynamics of the slave laser (SL), i.e., the laser subject to optical injection, for different SL forward bias currents are examined. Results show, in addition to the regenerated injection light wave, a fundamental oscillation together with its harmonics are generated when the SL is interacted with its nearby injection beam. The SL output frequency components are stabilised when one of the harmonics of the fundamental oscillation is located at the injection beam that is far away from the free running SL. More than six-fold improvement in the frequency stability of the resultant output microwave signal, compared to that generated by optical mixing, is obtained. Experimental results also show the SL nonlinear dynamics have different behaviours when the two injection beams have different frequency separations.
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